*Principal suspect, Pastor Mike Ola Bakare who administered liquid concoction after collecting N130,000 from victim is on the run

*Pastor Bakare sent my wife, a member of his church to buy snake head and tail—Landlord

Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command attached to Ajangbadi Police Division have arrested two suspects, a 37 year old Pastor and 37 year old female Pastor over the death of a 27 year old Chinedu Chukwudi who was said to have gone to Jesus Solution Ministry at Santana Bus Stop, Ajangbadi area of the State for deliverance where she met her untimely death.

A security source who spoke exclusively to Vanguard on condition of anonymity said: “On the 13th of November, 2016, Confidence Chukwudi, the elder sister to the deceased reported to the police that on the 12th of November, 2016, her younger sister, Chiwendu Chukwudi aged 27 years went to Jesus Solution Ministry for deliverance where the Pastor, now at large allegedly collected the sum of N130,000.00 from her, after which he administered a liquid substance on her and she started vomiting.

According to the source, the pastor allegedly “kept her in the church premises throughout the day until she became unconscious before she was taken to hospital in Okokomaiko where she was confirmed dead.”

The source further revealed to Saturday Vanguard that, when security operatives stormed the scene of the incident, the unidentified liquid substance and some charms, were recovered in the church during the search before taking her corpse to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja for autopsy.

How I met Pastor Bakare – Landlord
When Vanguard visited the church in an uncompleted building, it was discovered that all the doors and windows were sealed up with planks by the landlord, Mr Charles Gomah who said he was a Clearing and Forwarding Agent and an indigene of Plateau State.

Contacted for comment, Gomah said: “One day, a man came to me and said his name is Prophet Mike Ola Bakare and that, he would like to use my warehouse for a five-day crusade and I said okay, even if he doesn’t have money since he was speaking Hausa let him use it.

“You know those of us from the Northern part of Nigeria living in the South here, when you hear somebody speaking your language you just take him or her as a family member. I later learnt he is from Ilesa but he claimed he was from Kaduna State and was speaking Hausa. I then told him that, I couldn’t charge him for the warehouse, so he started using the place. After the five days crusade, when I came back from work one day, I saw different structures and electrical wiring and I confronted him that it was no longer a five day issue. He then said that he had issues where he was staying before in Ibafo and wanted to stay at the warehouse for a while. When I told him that this place you are staying is a family house, it does not even belong to me directly, so you have to pay money and he said okay he would pay. Then he paid me N120, 000, 00 for one year. “After he did the crusade, he was no longer frequent in the house and when I asked one of his members if the pastor had got another house, I was told that he was staying in a hotel.

“One day, I told one of his boys, who was his assistant to keep the place tidy but the boy broke a bottle and wanted to hit me, I then quickly picked up a cutlass but I did not strike him. When the pastor came back and I reported to him, instead of reprimanding the boy, he went and invited the police to harass me. But when I narrated the story to the police at Bale police station, I was advised to stay away from them.

He once threatened me with madness—Gomah
“One night he went to number 15 on this street with his boys armed with cutlasses to fight somebody there and I said you call yourself a man of God, why all these? But he said he has money, and I told him that when his rent expired I would not collect from him again but he rather threatened me with madness amongst others. When he approached me that his rent just expired, I told him I don’t want him here again and would give him a quit notice I had already told my lawyer.

Prophet Bakare jump through the window and escaped
“One Sunday morning between 8:00 am and 10: 00 am, I saw him making a call with one man in handcuff, whom I suspected to be a policeman so, I left them to go and buy something. When I came back, I did not see him and those men there. It was later when I was about to sleep that policemen came and started arresting people. I learnt that Prophet Bakare jumped through the window and escaped through the back abandoning his members. I did not know whether he was married or not or kept his wife elsewhere. I did not know his family. When I went outside to see what was happening, I was arrested. I stayed in the station from Sunday till Wednesday evening before I was granted bail from the police station.

He once sent my wife to buy snake head and tail for him- Lanlord

“There was a time he sent my wife who was a member of his church to help him buy snake head and tail and I told my wife that such errand is dangerous and that people using snake head and tails are herbalists. She insisted that the man was a pastor but I warned her that they may even turn it on her head.

“To me, I cannot say he was truly healing people. The thing looks like a drama. Sometimes I would see different kind of people and some mad people he claimed to have healed coming here. Before, people used to come with cars but of recent before that incident happened, people had stopped coming. It was as if they knew that the prophet was not a genuine man of God and many of them stopped coming.

Worshipers were singing praises and worship while there was corpse in the pastor’s office
Concerning the incident that happened that led to the arrest of the members, he said: “Actually, the victim I learnt was not worshipping there but her elder sister who brought her was worshipping there. I am not sure what brought her there but I believed it must be for miracle, because she was said to have paid a huge amount of money like N130, 000. When the girl died he allegedly took her to the hospital where it was confirmed that she died before he brought her back to the church.

“He dumped the corpse inside his office in the church; I did not know what his next agenda for that corpse was. Because when the corpse was inside the church that Sunday morning, people were coming for service and were singing praises and worshipping while there was corpse in the pastor’s office and members were not aware except his close workers who knew what was happening. The deceased elder sister was also aware.

“I believed it was the elder brother of the deceased who went and called the police because they were together with the pastor. The elder sister was the one who brought her two siblings, the brother and his deceased sister. I am not their member, all these things I am telling you are the stories I heard later on.”

How my wife and five children left me because of Pastor Bakare
When he first came, my wife was very close to him. She went on evangelism with him and I warned her because she believed so much in him. At a point, she stopped washing my clothes but was washing Pastor Bakare’s clothes, she also stopped serving me food but was doing all these for the prophet.

“When she had issues with the man of God and he reported her to me, I asked her have you been sleeping with Pastor Bakare? She then became sober, she thought somebody had told me of their secret romance which I was so much sure of. Since that day, she decided to leave my house with my five children.” He explained.

She went for deliverance from painful menstruation— Victim’s sister

Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with Vanguard, the elder sister of the deceased, Confi-dence Chukwudi narrated her story. She said: “I went to see Pastor Bakare with my younger sister who was having painful menstruation for deliverance on Saturday evening and he gave her something to drink and she drank it.”

When we got home, she started vomiting and complaining of cough and requested for Tomtom which I provided for her but, the situation became worse. I then decided to take her to the hospital but unfortunately, she died on the way.

“I now called Pastor Bakare and told him that I did not understand what he gave to my sister, and that my sister was dead. He rushed to the hospital and took us and my late sister’s corpse in his car to the church that Sunday morning. I just asked him to wake up my sister because I don’t know what he gave to her.

I thought his prayer could raise my dead sister back to life- Victim’s Sister
“I thought his prayer could work. My sister died after 9: am on Sunday, meanwhile we had gone to see the Pastor on Saturday evening when he administered the liquid substance on her. When we got to the church that morning, the service had already started so we went straight to his office with my sister’s corpse and stated praying.

“As the prayers were going on and I did not see my sister waking up, the police officer who came with us said we had to go back to the station to make a formal statement. Myself and the officer left for the station before we came back to the church with police patrol van to affect his arrest, he had already fled. Meanwhile two of his pastors were arrested.

The arrested pastors were not aware of what pastor Bakare did
“The truth is that, those two pastors were not there when Pastor Bakare gave that concoction to my sister, they only came to church that Sunday morning so they were not aware of those things. I do not know whether they have been released on bail or not because since they buried my sister, I am still in my village in the East.
I would have been killed by mob if I had not escaped-Pastor Bakare

“After the incident I went to the Police station with my brother to discuss with the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and while we were there, Pastor Bakare called me that he wanted to talk to my brother and I gave him the phone.

“According to my brother, he was pleading with him that he did not intend to kill my sister and that, he did not know the cause of my sister’s death. My brother now asked him why he ran and did not stay to defend himself and he replied that, the residents of that area would have killed him if he had not ran away.

“Up till now he had not told us the kind of drugs he gave to my sister. I then collected the phone and told him that I don’t have time to fight him because if I start, nobody would stand by me but what I know is that, if he was responsible for my sister’s death, this will be the end of his life and he will never have peace. Then he said, he never expected that from me and how could I have said such a thing. He said as he was no longer running his ministry his life has been shattered.

Kingsway International Christian Centre, a 12,000-member megachurch in Britain headed by Nigeria’s Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo, lost $4.8 million to a Ponzi scheme after trustees carelessly invested money in it.

The scam was the brainchild of former Premier League soccer player, Richard Rufus, who used to be a defender for Charlton Athletic. He promised investors along with the church a return as high as 55 per cent.

The Christian Post reporting the findings of an inquiry published 14 December by the Charity Commission for England and Wales revealed that the Kent-based 12,000 members Christian Centre suffered a net loss of about $4.8 million (£3.9 million) after its trustees invested over $6.1 million (£5 million) in four installments between June 2009 and June 2010 . Mr. Rufus was a member and former trustee of the church.

Mr. Rufus had guaranteed that the investments would earn a sizable return totaling about 55 percent in a year.He was last year found guilty of defrauding about 100 investors out of a total of $10,731,159 (£8,682,343) in the £16-million investing scheme.

Kingsway International Christian Centre was the single largest investor in the scheme.

The Charity Commission said in the report that the church’s trustees handed over an initial investment and entered into an agreement in which they were guaranteed that investment would earn a profit of about five percent per month, with the exception of August and December when they were guaranteed profits of about 2.5 percent.

“The inquiry established that in practice, however, the investments resulted in a net loss of £3.9 million to the charity,” the report explains.
The report states that the church’s trustees who handed over the funds were guilty of “mismanagement.”

The commission found that the church’s trustees did not “exercise sufficient care when making the decisions to invest £5 million of the charity’s funds through the ex-trustee’s investment scheme.”

“They did not follow all the principles expected of trustees to ensure they comply with their trustee duties under charity law when making those decisions,” the report said.

The Charity Commission was first alerted to the church’s investment when it found that the church made £3 million of investments with a “qualified independent trader” who was “in a position to provide the services of an investment manager by investing in financial markets.”

After the commission contacted the Financial Services Authority to verify the trustee’s status as a trader, it found that the trustee in question was not, nor had he ever been, licensed to “carry on regulated activities in a personal capacity.”

The commission also found that the investments were paid to the trustee’s personal bank accounts. Additionally, the commission found that the investments “appeared to be speculative and high risk in nature.”

As a result of the commission’s inquiry, an interim manager was appointed to review the trustees’ decisions to invest the £5 million and to decide whether any of the trustees should be held personally liable.

The interim manager found that the trustees did not do enough to investigate whether or not the rate of return they were promised was realistic and put too much trust in the trustee’s good standing with the church and community.

“The interim manager found that conflicts of interest were not managed properly by the decision-making trustees when making the decision to invest.
There was too much reliance on the expertise of the ex‑trustee when he was personally interested and conflicted,” the report states.

“The interim manager found that insufficient consideration was given by the decision-making trustees as to whether the guaranteed rate of return was unrealistically high, or to the potential for fraud.”

After the church entered into an Individual voluntary agreement with the ex-trustee in hopes he could pay back the money lost, the ex-trustee filed for bankruptcy and was declared bankrupt in 2013.

On December 24, 2016, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye paid a visit to Ekiti State. Since it was supposed to be a religious program the man of God held religious rallies at Ado Ekiti, Ilawe Ekiti, and Ogotun Ekiti. He also called on Governor Ayo Fayose who entertained him and gave him a “gift” on behalf of the government and people of Ekiti State. In appreciation of the gift, Pastor Adeboye prayed for the governor. The governor later accompanied the Pastor to the palace of Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe. In his brief political remarks at the palace, Pastor Adeboye eulogized Governor Ayo Fayose for his “courage and boldness” and recommended his model of governance to other governors in the country.

Turning to Mr. Fayose the RCCG leader said, “We thank God for your courage, for your boldness. We are grateful to God for your being willing to take risks so that your people can be protected. You have been a governor who knows when to say enough is enough in defense of his people. And I am sure you know what I am talking about and I am sure the world knows. I don’t want to say more than that but be assured that we are praying for you and you will succeed in Jesus name. We wish all other governors who stand for their people, defend their people and know when to say enough is enough and we thank God for their lives.”

In his reply, the obviously elated Governor Fayose thanked the priest for pouring encomiums on him. The governor was full of praise for Pastor Adeboye. While thanking the man of God for coming to Ekiti state to endorse his governance style Governor Fayose told the priest that “We need prayers that The Lord would make our year 2017 a meaningful one. We believe in God. We believe in you.” The governor had forgotten that he had predicted that 2017 would be a year of agony and disaster for Nigeria.

Since the politico-religious rally was concluded the Ekiti state radio and television stations have been airing the political endorsement of Governor Fayose by Pastor Adeboye. However, many of the workers who have not been paid salaries for six months have questioned Pastor Adeboye for not asking Governor Fayose to protect their interests. They wonder whether Pastor Adeboye is interpreting the insults daily heaped on President Muhammadu Buhari by Governor Fayose as evidence of “courage and boldness.” They also wonder why Pastor Adeboye did not join President Buhari in asking Governor Fayose to use the refund of the London/Paris Club debt to pay the arrears of salaries of workers in Ekiti state.

Instead of paying millions of naira to purchase political endorsement of religious leaders, Governor Fayose should realize that Pastor Adeboye is an inconsistent politician. Even though he supported and prayed in vain for the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan he has since switched his alliance and loyalty to President Buhari. After all, he prays for the success of the Buhari regime on the ground that Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice-President is a pastor within the RCCG fold. These days, he goes in and out of the presidential villa at Abuja to pray for President Buhari.

In asking other governors to emulate Governor is Pastor Adeboye asking them to loot the treasury of their states to purchase choice properties in Abuja, Lagos, and Dubai like Governor Fayose? In asking other governors to be “bold and courageous” like Governor Fayose, is Pastor Adeboye asking them to kill their political opponents? Or is Pastor Adeboye not aware that Fayose’s current spokesperson, Lere Olayinka once accused Mr. Fayose of killing the likes of Tunji Omojola, Ayo Daramola, Kehinde Fasuba, etc? Is Pastor Adeboye asking other governors to hire and fund thugs? Is Pastor Adeboye asking other governors to travel to China to execute fake projects like the poultry scam?

Pastor Adeboye should please set out those aspects of Governor Fayose’s governance style that should be copied by other governors. Otherwise, the other governors should ignore Pastor Adeboye and other prosperity pastors who have become defenders of the status quo and criminal politics. Very soon, he will join the likes of Bishop Hassan Kukah had asked President Buhari to stop the war against corruption because President Jonathan conceded victory when he lost the presidential election in 2015. Why are these fortune seeking pastors pretending to be winning souls for Christ when they are selfish traders who are busy exploiting the ignorance of worshippers?

Instead of visiting the poor in prisons, our fake pastors visit corrupt politicians who have stolen billions. Instead of identifying with the unemployed and the poor they pay courtesy calls on goverrnors who normally entertain them at public expence. Let the fake pastors go around deceiving the people. Did Pastor Ayo Ortsajefor not adopt President Jonathan as a model of good governance? Pastor Adeboye’s endorsement of Governor Fayose will not save him when he will stand trial for stealing billions of naira from the office of the National Security Adviser and the treasury of Ekiti State.

With due respect sir, your public assertion that mental health problems are caused by supernatural forces is completely false and misleading to the public as well as those who respect you and take your public utterances to heart. Sir, I suggest you seek the help of mental health practitioners for advice and guidance before speaking publicly about mental health issues so that you do not cause great public harm.

As of the moment I type these words, we have zero evidence that witches and wizards or evil spirits cause mental illness. Accumulated research over hundreds of years which have consumed billions of man-hours tells us that mental illnesses are caused by biological, psychological and social factors that often interact in a complex manner. It is the effects of these factors on the brain, which is the centre of mental functions, that lead to mental illness.

The biological factors include inherited conditions from our parents’ genes, maternal infections from the womb, maternal consumption of unprescribed drugs and illicit drugs, infections in childhood that are untreated or poorly treated, dangerous drug use and so on. Psychological causes include child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, bullying and so on. Social conditions that can contribute to mental illness causation include poverty and unemployment. Treatments that have been developed according to this model of disease causation have been hugely successful, telling us further that the model is sound.

When uninformed persons attribute mental illnesses to supernatural causes, not only are they misleading the public, they are also inducing unnecessary fear in the public leading to stigmatisation and maltreatment of the mentally ill.

Up to 80% percent of Nigerians with diagnosable mental illnesses do not seek treatment for them. One of the main reasons for this derives directly from statements like yours. Your statement prevents mentally ill persons from seeking help, it makes them feel ashamed and takes away their dignity. It predisposes them to human right abuse by equally uninformed members of the public. It makes them seek help at the wrong places and delays the start of efficacious and effective Orthodox treatment thereby worsening their long term clinical and social outcomes.

Dear Pastor Adeyemi, your church and other churches can help mental health practitioners and the clients they see by referring to proper hospitals, persons with abnormalities in thought, perception, emotion and behaviour that cause them and their families distress, as well as prevent them from functioning optimally at home, work and society.

Also, your church and other churches can help by providing financial and social support to those who suffer from mental illnesses. You can create a mental health fund from your resources for the hospital care of the mentally ill. Humane treatment and respect for the dignity of all, including the mentally ill is something that should be preached from the pulpit.

Mental illness prevention begins from proper care of the developing brain from conception, meaning that women should have adequate care in pregnancy, the home environment should be conducive for the growth and development of children and the thriving of women, and maintenance of loving marital relationships. These can be preached from the pulpit.

Finally, Pastor, mental illnesses are not rare. 1 in 7 Nigerians will have one in their lifetimes. They also do not respect persons. They could happen to you or me or those we know. The overall principle then is this: how do you or I want to be treated when we have a mental illness?

I shall be glad to hear that you passed this message to your brethren and the entire faith community. You have a role to play in the spread of knowledge, in uplifting mankind and preserving the dignity of all men, especially those who are ill or weak and those without a voice.

Nigerian pastor T.B. Joshua speaks during a New Year’s memorial service for the South African relatives of those killed in a building collapse at his Lagos megachurch.

Worshipers at Joshua’s New Year’s memorial service in Lagos.

Pentecostalism is booming all over the globe, but especially in Nigeria. Meet the man responsible for its rise.

Rows of sick people queue up one afternoon in downtown Lagos. There are people with crutches, mothers with crying babies, a couple of wheelchair-bound people and several with bad coughs. This is not a hospital; it’s a sports center. And they are not waiting to see a doctor; they are here to see a priest.

T.B. Joshua is one of Nigeria’s most controversial clergymen. Besides claiming to have a direct line to God, this 52-year-old has been performing so-called “healing miracles” for 20 years. Call him the Oprah of evangelism, the African case study in the kind of mass preaching that much of America is so famous for; he has his own TV shows, two million Facebook fans, sold-out events and branded merchandise. And like Oprah, he’s rich as hell. The latest estimates put his wealth at about $150 million. His church has branches all over the world, from the U.K. to Australia. He often goes on what he calls “Miracle Crusades” to other nations, and he claims that more than a million people have paid to attend his Tony Robbins–style seminars worldwide.

“I have nothing to say,” says one follower, asked about Joshua’s critics. “The Holy Book teaches us to love even our enemies.”

Joshua is certainly not the only millionaire priest in Nigeria. Over the past 15 years, televangelism has taken over the country, and Pentecostalism — a Christian renewal movement that emphasizes a direct, personal experience of God — is booming across the entire African continent, as well as in Latin America. The first Pentecostal missions arrived in Nigeria in 1910. By 1970, there were an estimated 300,000 converts, and by the turn of the century, 30 to 40 million, according to Ruth Marshall, professor at the University of Toronto’s Departments for the Study of Religion and Political Science and author of Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. According to the World Christian Database, some 12 percent of Africans are Pentecostals.

His pastoral style is sui generis. Joshua, who didn’t respond to OZY’s requests for comment, doesn’t preach that much. Rather, for a few minutes, he screams into the microphone, often prophesying what is to come — wisdom garnered from the latest chat with God. (He claims he foresaw the September 11 terrorist attacks.) Then, he takes his powers away from the mic and toward the sick, praying over the bodies of the afflicted and asking God to release the object of his prayer from cancer, syphilis, whatever disease it may be.

Chimbiebere Stanley Okah, 42, one of Joshua’s followers, tells us that he found the preacher through TV and was convinced when he saw one of Joshua’s “miracles” — healing a man from baldness with a sip of water. “I’ve seen countless miracles,” Okah says. “His preaching is flawless.” As for Joshua’s critics? “I have nothing to say,” Okah tells us. “The Holy Book teaches us to love even our enemies.”

For many followers, wealth enhances their pastor’s credibility and their own faith, rather than sullying them. Indeed, it’s not his money so much as his power that pisses off his preacher peers. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, the country’s association of leading Pentecostal churches, has denied Joshua membership because, it says, he hasn’t provided proof of ordination. A few years ago, some preachers gathered to warn followers about Joshua, calling him an agent of the devil, arguing his curing powers had a dark source.

Such earthly demands for proof don’t trouble Joshua, who dismisses them as quack talk. Joshua claims his birth was prophesied a century earlier and that he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb before being born into a small Western Nigerian village. There, he attended primary school and worked odd jobs before starting to organize his first Bible groups.

He’s extremely charismatic, says Rene Peters, a Rwandan student whose mother took him to one of Joshua’s events. Joshua, Peters recalls, yelled at a woman who tried to stand up and leave during an event, and made her sit back down. “He exploits the naïveté or desperation of his followers with no accountability,” says Pradip Thomas, a scholar at the University of Queensland and co-editor of the book Global and Local Televangelism. A dozen people died last year when one of his event venues collapsed. Joshua has not been held legally accountable for the incident — yet.

It would be churlish to paint all of Joshua’s followers as naive or wooden-headed. “It’s hard to believe you can run on empty claims for over 20 years,” Marshall says. Those who come to Joshua are, after all, seekers; many have prayed and dreamed for years on end. Like Paul Ighodaro, 37, a Nigerian living in Greece. A composer, singer and writer, Ighodaro tells us about a vision he had: A son of God would appear in Nigeria. Ighodaro himself began to spread this word, which brought him to Emmanuel TV and Joshua. “I know the signature of God when I see one,” he writes. Ighodaro doesn’t even need to go to Joshua’s church, he says — he never has attended. He’s seen himself in Joshua’s congregation in a dream, wearing the choir garment. But don’t think he’s just relying on visions to connect with Joshua. Ighodaro credits the internet most of all.

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The General Evangelist of the Christ Apostolic Church, Prophet Samuel Abiara, who lost his wife, Prophetess Christiana Abiara, on Saturday said he had the premonition of her death.

Abiara, who spoke in Ibadan on Monday, said his late wife was a role model to other women because, apart from serving God, she was a mother to everyone in the family.

Abiara said, “We got married in 1965 but before then, she had been close to God because her late father, Evangelist Adasofunjo, was a renowned man of God. She was the only child of her mother and she was obedient from childhood till the day God called her.

“She had been sick for the past three weeks, but she was talking and taking part in normal daily activities. But the Spirit of God told me that God was about to call her. After a prayer session at the hospital, I left her a day before she died and in the following evening, I came back and jokingly asked her if she was about to be delivered of another set of twins because we have three sets of twins. We prayed again and sang seven Halleluyah. After the last one, she breathed her last.”

The bereaved man of God added that the highpoint of his late wife’s life was her generosity and humility.

“She never kept malice just as the Bible commands. With her, I never knew any suffering or hunger because she took good care of me. She was not my wife, but my mother. Just as God is forever gentle and humble, my wife was the same. I met her through her father, who introduced me to her when I was a bachelor and I never regretted marrying her. When we met, she was a fashion designer. We hardly offended each other but anytime there was a minor disagreement, we looked up to the Word of God that preaches love.”

Despite still mourning the loss of his wife, Abiara took time to reflect on the economic problem facing Nigeria.

According to him, it is a phase that will pass. He noted that great nations in the world had, at one time or the other, experienced the same hardship.

“My wife’s death and what has happened to me is a lesson to Nigerians. No matter the suffering, we should always seek the face of God. The economic hardship we are experiencing in Nigeria now is a phase that will pass. Any country can experience it. We should be patient with President Muhammadu Buhari because he will not perform magic to bring changes.”